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Ansco
Ansco was an American manufacturer of camera equipment in Binghamton, New York. In the 19th century its predecessor E. & H.T. Anthony Co. was the largest distributor of photography supply in the U.S.A.. It started in 1841 or 1842 as daguerreotype gallery Edward Anthony in New York and expanded its activity becoming photography supplier in 1847. In 1852 Edward Anthony's brother Henry T. joined. In 1870 the company started making cameras. The company was the first to patent a roll-film holder that could be loaded in lightCoe, Brian, Cameras - from Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures, Marshall-Cavendish Editions, 1978, p.80. In 1902 it was merged with Scovill & Adams into Anthony & Scovill, this name being abbreviated to Ansco. Ansco took over film maker Goodwin, photo paper maker Columbia and the American Photo Products Co.. Then it was merged with Agfa in 1928, to be called Agfa-Ansco. Additionally to its own products Ansco began to sell rebadged or licensed cameras of some other makers, especially of Agfa, and it built a new film factory. In 1939 Ansco was renamed to General Aniline & Film (GAF). During WWII the company became state-owned because of its relations to Germany, and was forced to produce sextants and military optical rangefinders, and then it was sold as "enemy-asset". After the war the company was again Ansco and reached its peak as camera maker with a production of 2 million cameras per year. Since the 1950s it sold again rebadged cameras, made by Agfa, Chinon, Ricoh and even Minolta. The company became GAF (General Aniline & Film) in 1967 and made some film and cameras branded GAF, and in 1978, Haking of Hong Kong acquired the rights to the Ansco trademark. Ansco cameras continued to be made until the 1990s by Haking, while GAF became Anitec. In 1992 Anitec celebrated the company's 150th anniversary. It became part of a group which was taken over by Kodak. The factory in Binghamton was closed in 1998 and demolished in 2000. Camera List * Ansco Anscoflex * Ansco Anscomark M * Ansco Anscoset * Ansco Arrow * Ansco Automatic Reflex * Ansco Buster Brown No. 2A * Ansco Cadet II * Ansco Cadet Reflex * Ansco Clipper * Ansco Dollar * Ansco Flash Clipper * Ansco No. 3A Folding Buster Brown * Ansco Isolette * Ansco Junior * Ansco Karomat * Ansco Lancer * Ansco Marvel S-20 (made for Sears) * Ansco Memar and Ansco Super Memar * Ansco Memo * Ansco Memo II (Half-frame) * Ansco No 1A Folding * Ansco No 2A Folding * Ansco No 6 Folding * Ansco Panda * Ansco Pioneer (also badged as the "Ansco Jr. Press Photographer") * Ansco Pix Panorama * Ansco Plenax PB20 * Ansco Readyflash * Ansco Readyset * Ansco Readyset Royal No. 1A * Ansco Readyset Special * Ansco Readyset Traveler * Ansco Rediflex * Ansco Regent * Ansco Shur Flash * Ansco Shur Shot * Ansco Speedex * Ansco Super Speedex * Ansco Super Regent * Ansco Universal View Camera * Anscomatic Cadet Flash Camera kit * Craftsman Camera Kit Disc Cameras * Ansco 105, Ansco 105 Telephoto * Ansco 310 * Ansco 320 * Ansco 330 * Ansco 340 * Ansco 350 * Ansco 370 * Ansco 380 telephoto * Ansco Cadet 100 * Ansco Disc 103 * Ansco Fiesta, Ansco Fiesta Tele * Ansco HR10, Ansco Memo HR10, Ansco HR10T * Ansco HR15 * Ansco HR20 * Ansco HR25 * Ansco HR30 * Ansco HR40 * Ansco HR50 * Ansco HR65 * Ansco Ready Flash VR1 Links In English: *about Anthony **E. & H.T. Anthony, company and cameras, at Field Cameras of the United States http://www.fiberq.com/cam/index.htm **E. & H.T. Anthony Company at historic camera http://www.historiccamera.com *about Ansco **Chronology on Bill's Photo History http://home.att.net/~wlcamp/ **Wikipedia Ansco entry **Ansco Half-Frame Cameras **Aphabetical list of Disc Cameras, Achiever-Ansco **Ansco camera manuals at www.orphancameras.com In English and French: * Ansco cameras at Sylvain Halgand's www.collection-appareils.fr In French: * Ansco page at Collection G. Even's site * Ansco Automatic Reflex at dirapon.be Category: Camera makers Category: Film makers * Category: USA